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McLaren Racing
McLaren Racing Limited, trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is a Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has also competed and won in the Indianapolis 500 and Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am). The team is the second oldest active team (after Ferrari) and one of the most successful teams in Formula One, having won 170 races, 12 drivers' championships and 8 constructors' championships. Origins Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Bruce was a works driver for the British Formula One team Cooper with whom he had won three Grands Prix and come second in the 1960 world championship. Wanting to compete in the Australasian Tasman Series, Bruce approached his employers, but when team owner Charles Cooper insisted on using 1.5 litre Formula One-specification engines instead of the 2.5 litre motors permitted by the Tasman rules, Bruce decided to set-up his own team to run him and his prospective Formula One team-mate Timmy Mayer with custom-built Cooper cars. Bruce won the 1964 series, but Mayer was killed in practice for the final race, prompting his brother and manager Teddy Mayer to become involved with the running of the team. In 1964 and 1965 McLaren were based in New Malden, then Feltham before settling on premises in Colnbrook. During this period Bruce drove for his team in sports car races in the United Kingdom and North America and also entered the 1965 Tasman Series with Phil Hill but didn't win it. He continued to drive in Grands Prix for Cooper but judging that team's form to be waning, decided to race his own cars in 1966. Racing History: Formula 1 '1960's' '1966' Bruce made the team's Grand Prix debut at the 1966 Monaco race (of the current Formula One teams only Ferrari are older). His race ended after nine laps due to a terminal oil leak. The 1966 car was the M2B designed by Robin Herd but the programme was hampered by a poor choice of engines: a 3.0 litre version of Ford's Indianapolis 500 engine and a Serenissima V8 were used, the latter scoring the team's first point in Britain, but both were underpowered and unreliable. '1967' For 1967 Bruce decided to use a British Racing Motors (BRM) V12 engine, but due to delays with the engine, was forced initially to use a modified Formula Two car called the M4B powered by a 2.1 litre BRM V8, later building a similar but slightly larger car called the M5A for the V12. Neither car brought great success, the best result being a fourth at Monaco. '1968' For 1968, after driving McLaren's sole entry for the previous two years, Bruce was joined by 1967 champion and fellow New Zealander Denny Hulme, who was already racing for McLaren in Can-Am. That year's new M7A car, Herd's final design for the team, was powered by Cosworth's new and soon to be ubiquitous DFV engine (the DFV would go on to be used by McLaren until 1983) and with it a major upturn in form proceeded. Bruce won the Race of Champions at the Brands Hatch circuit and Hulme won the International Trophy at Silverstone, both non-championship races, before Bruce took the team's first championship win at the Belgian Grand Prix. Hulme also won the Italian and Canadian Grands Prix later in the year, helping the team to second in the constructors' championship. '1969' Using an updated 'C' version on the M7, a further three podium finishes followed for Bruce in 1969, but the team's fifth win had to wait until the last race of the 1969 championship when Hulme won the Mexican Grand Prix. That year McLaren experimented with four-wheel drive in the M9A but the car had only a single outing driven by Derek Bell at the British Grand Prix; Bruce described driving it as like "trying to write your signature with somebody jogging your elbow". '1970's' '1970' 1970 started with a second place each for Hulme and Bruce in the first two Grands Prix, but in June Bruce was killed in a crash at Goodwood while testing the new M8D Can-Am car. After his death, Teddy Mayer took over effective control of the team; Hulme continued with Dan Gurney and Peter Gethin partnering him. Gurney won the first two Can-Am events at Mosport and St. Jovite and placed ninth in the third, but left the team mid-season, and Gethin took over from there. '1971' 1971 began promisingly when Hulme led the opening round in South Africa before retiring with broken suspension, but ultimately Hulme, Gethin (who left for BRM mid-season ) and Jackie Oliver again failed to score a win. '1972' The 1972 season saw improvements though: Hulme won the team's first Grand Prix for two-and-a-half years in South Africa and he and Peter Revson scored ten other podiums, the team finishing third in the constructors' championship. McLaren gave Jody Scheckter his Formula One debut at the final race at Watkins Glen. Category:Constructors Champions Category:Formula One Constructors